August 9, 2001
Sensenbrenner and Gekas Offer Common Sense About Immigration Policy
(Washington, D.C.) -- Yesterday's announcement by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration urging comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration policy before contemplating an amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens is a welcome injection of common sense and public interest into this important policy debate, declared the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Chairmen James Sensenbrenner and George Gekas are demanding an overhaul of the Immigration and Naturalization Service before moving forward with any plans for amnesty programs for illegal aliens.
"Up until this point, both the White House and the Democratic leadership in Congress have been driven by purely political desires to appeal to ethnic voting blocs and cheap labor interests," said Dan Stein, executive director of FAIR. "Finally, we are hearing some responsible voices who believe that we need to look at how a massive amnesty will affect the nation and American citizens, and whether the chronically dysfunctional INS could even handle a massive amnesty program.
"Chairmen Sensenbrenner and Gekas should be congratulated for demanding that our first priority ought to be implementing a sound, rational immigration policy and getting INS's house in order," Stein said. "The very fact that there are between 8 and 11 million people living here illegally is proof that our immigration policies are failing miserably, and amnesty will do nothing to change the underlying problem."
Congress has been discussing a complete overhaul of the INS for years, but nothing has been done to improve the agency's ability to enforce the law, or to provide efficient service to people with legitimate immigration claims. "An amnesty program at this point would be like throwing lead weights to a drowning man," said Stein. "The INS can't manage its routine duties, much less a massive amnesty, legalization, or guestworker program involving millions of people whose claims for legalization will have to be investigated.
"Amidst all the political pandering on this issue, these two leaders are asking the important questions: 'Does an illegal alien amnesty benefit the American public?' and 'Can the federal government's most dysfunctional agency even manage one?'" said Stein.